


The Zero Mission

by orphan_account



Category: Gallagher Girls Series - Ally Carter, Original - Fandom, Thunderbirds
Genre: 2060s, Assembly and Checkout, Brains went to Yale, Canon Expansion, F/M, Glenn Field, Good Jeff Tracy, International Rescue, NCIS - Freeform, Pedicure, Socialism, Socialist Jeff Tracy, The Hood (Thunderbirds) Bashing, Virginia, a different mission for the Zero-X, a wee bit of terrorism, foot pumice, pumice, tidewater
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:00:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24290083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It’s 2063,and the first manned mission to the Kuiper Belt is underway. A team of researchers has been tasked with examining the asteroid Orcus and to establish the characteristics of the mysterious zone at the edge of the solar system.But as with any space mission,there is an element of danger. A test flight is sabotaged and ends in failure. Can the crew,given a second chance with their flight spare,accomplish a successful mission? What will they find,there on the brink of interstellar space? And will they be able to return safely to Earth?TLDR:my GaA-compliant rewrite of the Thunderbirds are Go! movie.
Relationships: Alan Tracy/Tanusha "Kayo" Kyrano, Penelope Creighton-Ward/Virgil Tracy, Scott Tracy/Anna Fetterman
Kudos: 3





	1. Epigraph

The bells of the Gion Temple  
ring the passing of all things.   
Twinned sala trees, white in full flower,   
declare the great man's certain fall.   
The arrogant do not long endure:   
They are like a dream one night in spring.   
The bold and brave perish in the end:  
They are as dust before the wind.

\- The Tale of the Heike 


	2. A letter from Bryce “Brains” Frey to a friend, 21 July 2061

Dear Vanessa,

I was happy to receive your E-letter from Leda after you arrived there with the _Gallant Endeavour._ International Rescue really does have you to thank,after the events which occurred with respect to the maiden voyage of Skyship. You’re a good agent,but also a good friend. I send good wishes to Brent,Alice,Jon,Mikhail,Davos,and the rest of the team.

But as always, something is cropping up. In two weeks,we will be monitoring the launch of the test flight of the Zero-X experimental spaceship "Yuri Gagarin" from Glenn Field at Langley Space Center. Gagarin will fly around the Moon before being refitted on Earth to explore the Kuiper Belt object Orcus,discovered in 1994. We'll be on standby status during the mission. I'm looking forward to helping aid this mission.

I hope you're keeping well. Be assured that we are,here on Tracy Island.

Yours,Bryce


	3. Zero-X press information

The Zero-X, as built by New World Aerospace,is a fleet of revolutionary new spacecraft equipped with Flesseur drive engines for missions near the speed of light. This,in conjunction with other spacecraft using the same drive,will enable the beginning of interstellar exploration.

Each Zero-X (there will be 8 of them) is 335 feet long by 80 feet in diameter, with a total delta velocity of 24,829,500 m/s. They are made of a titanium-thermite alloy termed as thermite-47. Combined with stainless steel at the manufactories in Nashua and Fortaleza,this enables high performance at higher velocities,and in concert with the engines confers upon the Zero-X an effectively limitless flight range.

The operating center of the Zero-X is at Glenn Field near Newport News,Virginia, from where the first missions will be flown,but Zero-X missions can be staged from any decently large airport or aerospaceport.   
  



	4. Zero-X is go!

On the warm morning of August 8,at Langley in Virginia.the assembly process of the spaceship _Yuri Gagarin_ commenced. Floodlights lit Hangar 72 at Langley as mission supervisor Lorcan Casey assumed his position,a mile away in Mobile Control Tower. At his command sat a range of holocronic and holographic control systems that rated second-to-none for accuracy,display capacity.or memory recall. The piano-like console he was about to operate controlled the entire assembly and checkout process of the Zero-X. The grizzled old Coast Guard Captain was confident he could handle today’s launch.  
  


Behind him sat Lavender Ridley,the young Canadian engineer from New World Aerospace who’d been charged with overseeing the assembly flow for _Gagarin_ since its arrival at Langley three months earlier. A tall brunette with a side ponytail,she sat at a nearby console.

”Nervous?”, Casey asked her.

“Who wouldn’t be?”

Cassy turned to his tannoy. The clock read 6:58 am.

”This is Assembly Control,calling all Zero-X units. Assembly is go!”

A thought ran through Casey’s brain. _And now we have crossed the Rubicon._

———

At 7 am on the dot the hangar doors slid down,revealing the front end of _Gagarin._ A square blue surface protruded two “nodes”,to which the Crew Control Module would shortly attach. Behind it snaked the main body of the spaceship,glowing sea blue in the morning Sun.

It took three minutes for the entire thing to roll onto the Langley tarmac. When it had,Casey spoke again.

"This is Assembly Control. Clear launch apron. Zero-X moving into position. Radio-controlled lifting body 2 about to take up position. All fuel tankers should now retire to dispersal area. Repeat: all fuel tankers should now retire to dispersal area."

Up the tarmac moved a blue aerobody, about 45 feet in length, rolling under the power of its MA-101 fluorine-powered engine. Once it was under Gagarin's left wing,its support truck moved up on a stanchion pillar to the level of the wing,where a trio of pyrobolts secured it in launch position.

"Weather conditions for take-off remain at go. All take-off beacons are transmitting normally. The flight crew will now assume launch positions."

Now it was the opposite lifting body's turn to attach to Gagarin. From a squat hangar extended a great rail,upon which the recently-secured lifting body's twin moved sedately. It reached the top of Gagarin,just aft of where the CCM would attach,then a tech 'droid moved it into place and secured it to Gagarin.

"Lifting bodies attached,all systems report go conditions. The CCM will be joining the main ship shortly."

\---------

In a van rode the Gagarin's flight crew,commanded by Dr Paul Travers,43.


End file.
